United States good at leaving its friends 'stunned'

7:26 PM,
Dec. 6, 2013

Written by

Charles Krauthammer

Three crises, one president, many bewildered friends.The first crisis, barely noticed here, is Ukraine's sudden turn away from Europe and back to the Russian embrace.

After years of negotiations for a major trading agreement with the European Union, Ukraine succumbed to characteristically blunt and brutal economic threats from Russia and abruptly walked away. Ukraine is instead considering joining the Moscow-centered Customs Union with Russia's fellow dictatorships Belarus and Kazakhstan.

This is no trivial matter. Ukraine is not just the largest country in Europe, it's the ...